Fiber optic communications technology is becoming more prevalent in part because service providers want to deliver high band with communication capabilities to customers. A typical fiber optic communication system includes a network of fiber optic cables. The fiber optic communications systems can also include additional components, such as fiber distribution hubs that house optical splitters for splitting optical signals, and drop terminals that provide interconnect locations for facilitating connecting subscribers to the fiber optic network. Other components typically found in fiber optic communication systems include pedestals, splice enclosures, network interface devices, optical network terminals and other structures.
A typical fiber optic cable includes at least one optical fiber adapted for transmitting optical signals. The optical fiber is typically enclosed within a protective outer jacket. The optical fiber can also be protected within a buffer tube located inside the protective jacket. Fiber optic cables typically also include reinforcing structures positioned inside the jacket. For example, flexible reinforcing structures such as aramid yarn (i.e., Kevlar) can be used to provide tensile reinforcement to the jacket that prevents tension from being applied to the optical fibers when a tensile load is applied to the fiber optic cable. Because tensile reinforcing structures such as aramid yarn are flexible, such structures provide minimal resistance to compressive forces applied to the fiber optic cables and do not provide meaningful resistance to cable buckling. Fiber optic cables can also be provided with reinforcing members that provide reinforcement for both tensile and compressive loading. For example, some fiber optic cables are provided with reinforcing rods formed of a material such as fiberglass reinforced epoxy. Such reinforcing structures are relatively stiff and are adapted to provide the fiber optic cables with reinforcement with respect to both tensile and compressive loading.
In a typical fiber optic communication system, fiber optic cables are routed into structures such enclosures. Within the enclosures, the outer jackets of the fiber optic cables are often stripped away to provide ready access to the optical fibers to allow for splicing and/or connectorization of the fibers. In such applications, the reinforcing structures of the fiber optic cables are typically anchored to the enclosure so that loadings applied to the fiber optic cables outside the enclosure are transferred from the reinforcing structures to the enclosure. In this way, such loadings are not transferred to the unjacketed portions of the optical fibers that are positioned within the enclosure.
Anchoring reinforcing structures to fiber optic enclosures or other structures (e.g., panels, shelves, drawers, frames, racks, etc.) can be a time consuming process. Improvements are needed in this area.